Fire Announce Nery Castillo as New DP - Lose to New England

The Fire essentially crashed out of SuperLiga 2010 with a 1-0 loss to New England but the biggest story of the night was the addition of forward Nery Castillo to the roster as the team's designated player. Castillo should arrive this coming week for a physical and begin training with the team shortly after. Carlos De Los Cobos plans to use Castillo as a striker.

The transfer is an 18 month loan with an option to buy meaning Castillo will be with the Fire until at least the end of the 2011 season.

Frank Klopas also suggested that the club may also still be in the hunt for a second and possibly a third designated player acquistion. You can listen to the entire press conference on the Fire Confidential podcast page.

Revs 1 Fire 0

The Fire changed personnel and formation to start the second half of the match and failed to produce many scoring opportunities with McBride and John up top in a 4-4-2. The best chance of the half came in the 54th minute when Justin Mapp headed a cross from Marco Pappa over an open net.

The loss marks the third embarrasing tournament outcome for the club in as many tries this season. An uninspiring performance in the Sister Cities Tournament, a loss to a USL-2 side in the US Open Cup, and now an early exit in SuperLiga will give the Fire plenty of time to focus only on the remainder of the MLS season.

The addition of Castillo along with the anticipated return from injuries of John Thorrington, Patrick Nyarko, Baggio Husidic, and Logan Pause should provide some opportunity for optimism.

Comments

Interesting collection of mid-career internationals trying to revive their careers in MLS now - the Fire alone have Castillo and John, and now we can add Bravo to the list. John hasn't exactly been a revelation with his injuries, so I'm hoping Castillo can do a little more to warrant the hype and expense.

Guys like Bravo and Castillo represent a new type of player in MLS. You've described them pretty well. Sure, they're gambles but if players like this do well it could lead to opportunities to bring in "younger" DP types that will see MLS as a good option thereby raising the quality of play in the league another notch.

Attitude is one thing, leadership is another. Nowak's attitude paled in comparison to what he gave to the team, character and leadership. He set the bar high and worked well with the youth of the team, taught them how to be professionals. He was selfless and made those around him better. While I do not expect that from Castillo, I hope he has the patience to do that in some small measure. I hope he has matured.

maybe Dykstra just needs a new doo. he's always fixing it. distracting his game. but seriously, is this team that bad where we just aren't dedicating a good goal keeper at the backstop? man, too bad the whole Pickens deal sent him to Colorado way back when... i know it had a lot to do with Matt, but I'm sure we would have been better to keep his rights anyway. All that depth with Busch and Pickens, and a few years later, nothing.

well this signing gives me something to look forward to. i live 4+ hrs away from chicago so i dont get to many games, but i had tickets for the september game vs LA galaxy, and i had been kinda regretting it, as chicago had been getting worse as the season progressed.

now, there is a month and a half for castillo to get match fit, thorrington hopefully be playing by then as well, nyarko should be over his concussion, and i hope collins john can finally gel with the team, there are a few rays of hope that i might get to see a good game, at least a competitive game by the Fire

as bad as they have been lately, there is still time to pull a RSL-09 and make a run

It will be interesting to see how many calls up to the Mexican National team that Castillo gets if he plays well with the Fire. If he is able to get a spot on the team, then it could entice more players in their mid twenties to come to MLS. We won't have to see player's like Beckham and Cooper leaving just to try and boost their chances of playing for their country. This would be a huge step forward for MLS.

With US open and supeliga done , now the team can concentrate on going on a run just like RSL did last year and New York did the year before. Both teams made it to the MLS cup game by grabbing the last playoff spot on the last day of the season. This Fire team on paper is superior to the NY team that made it to the title game 2 years ago.

Let's hope and pray that the Fire will have some kind of spark with the addition to Castillo and maybe another DP. They need Husidic, Thorrington, Nyarko and Castillo in the lineup. Good thing you mentioned NY team in 2008 that made it to the MLS Cup Championship game with Danny Cepero as goalkeeper. You can't tell me that Cepero is better than Dykstra? With Castllio in the lineup, I don't want to see Banner and Dimitrov roaming around the field.